EEL passes are to be built in South Lakeland to help the critically-endangered species get past dams, weirs and flood defences to reach their river homes.

A scheme by the Co-operative and the Rivers Trust will see the specially-designed passes built in 10 key sites across the country to open up quality eel habitat in places such as Windermere, where the species has not been seen for more than 30 years.

Passes will be built in weirs at Newby Bridge and Stramongate in Kendal, on a dam near Haverthwaite and in the Lune Estuary.

The Co-operative said bristle boards would be installed to help eels slither over weirs and flood defences while buoys will be attached to drainage flaps to keep them open longer and give eels a chance of swimming upriver.

Eels have an extraordinary life cycle, which begins in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda before travelling across the Atlantic, reaching the European coast, where they swim into freshwater rivers and lakes to settle and grow for up to 20 years.

They then make the return journey across the Atlantic to spawn.

European eels have seen numbers plummet by more than 95 per cent from pre-1980 levels and the latest efforts to help them come amid fears that barriers on UK rivers are contributing to the decline of the species.

Chris Shearlock, sustainable development manager at the Co-operative Group, said: "As well as opening up quality habitat for this critically endangered species, an increased influx of juvenile eels will have wide-reaching biodiversity benefits. The eel plays a key role in the food chain of other species such as the otter and the bittern.

"This project makes the North West the first region in Europe to systematically tackle the barriers most detrimental to eel migration.

“By installing monitoring equipment, we will be able to assess the benefit of these passes and quantify the number of eels reintroduced to their natural habitat."

The eel passes will be installed in Cumbria, Cheshire and Lancashire, with the £50,000 cost of the scheme met by the Co-operative Foundation, a charitable trust which receives funding from the Co-operative.